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The influence of the nanowire shape on the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons at metallic nanowire arrays is studied numerically. For a system of silver nanowires housed on a polymer substrate, nanowires with rectangular and elliptical cross sections are compared. It was found that in the case of rectangular nanowires the excitation efficiency is higher for surface plasmons at the polymer–metal interface than for surface plasmons at the air–metal interface. Conversely, in the case of elliptical nanowires the air–metal plasmon modes are stronger. Further, it is noted that the nanowire shape directly influences the position of the surface plasmon resonance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new type of temperature driven spin reorientation transition (SRT) in thin films. It can occur when the lattice and the shape anisotropy favor different easy directions of the magnetization. Due to different temperature dependencies of the two contributions the effective anisotropy may change its sign and thus the direction of the magnetization as a function of temperature may change. Contrary to the well-known reorientation transition caused by competing surface and bulk anisotropy contributions the reorientation that we discuss is also found in film systems with a uniform lattice anisotropy. The results of our theoretical model study may have experimental relevance for film systems with positive lattice anisotropy, as e.g. thin iron films grown on copper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We use a microscopic model for ultrathin metallic films to analyze temperature dependent FMR measurements of exchange coupled Ni–Co films. The reduction of the interlayer exchange coupling with increasing temperature is investigated. We find that magnon excitations are the dominating cause of the temperature dependence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Temperature dependent FMR-measurements of Ni and Co films are analysed using a microscopic theory for ultrathin metallic systems. The mechanism governing the temperature dependence of the magnetic anisotropy energy is identified and discussed. It is reduced with increasing temperature. This behavior is found to be solely caused by magnon excitations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Adding a non-magnetic Cu overlayer on Ni8/Cu(001) is known to induce the reorientation of the magnetic easy axis from in-plane to out-of-plane and to reduce the Curie temperature. In this paper both effects are described on the same footing using an effective Heisenberg trilayer. The model takes into account thermal fluctuations of the magnetization and allows to separate explicitly between two possible mechanisms behind the experimental observations, namely between a reduction of the magnetic moment by hybridization and a lattice relaxation at the Ni/Cu interface. Ferromagnetic resonance data for the reorientation and the decreased Curie temperature due to the Cu cap layer are best reproduced by assuming a reduction of the magnetic moment at the interface by ≈1/3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strongly correlated electron systems are studied with the help of periodic Anderson model (PAM). The PAM in which highly correlated nondegenerate localized states form a subsystem is considered and the focus of study is on magnetic ordering of electrons in these localized states. In order to study the PAM, which is not amenable to exact solution, two approximate schemes are proposed. The first one is called the spectral density approximation (SDA). Guided by the atomic limit, a two-pole ansatz is made for the localized electron spectral density. The spectral weights and the quasiparticle energies are determined by a moment method. From the spectral density, the spin and energy dependent self-energy is evaluated. A principal limitation of this method is that per ansatz, the quasiparticles are of infinite lifetime. To introduce a finite lifetime, a second approximation scheme is proposed where coherent potential approximation (CPA) is applied to PAM. In order to do CPA, an alloy analogy (AA) is required. In the conventional AA, the concentrations α and the atomic levels E of the fictitious alloy are taken from the atomic limit. Since the interest is in the magnetic properties, this AA is not appropriate. Therefore, a modified AA (MAA) is proposed. In MAA, α and E are obtained using the high energy expansion of the Green's function and the self-energy. In both the approximations, the density of states and the magnetization are self-consistently evaluated and a phase diagram is obtained. Comparison of the results of the two schemes brings out the effect of quasiparticle damping on the magnetic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]